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Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Ind. Law - More on: Indiana fails 2009 Sunshine Week survey; specifically, death certificates

Indiana failed the 2009 Sunshine Week Survey, but some research by the ILB indicates that the Survey itself is flawed in-so-far as its statistics on the availability of "death certificates online" is concerned.

On March 15th the ILB had an entry headed "Indiana fails 2009 Sunshine Week survey," that looked at the Sunshine Week 2009 Survey of State Government Information and at Indiana's ranking -- next to last.

In the earlier entry, the ILB examined one of the 20 categories on which the states were rated -- disciplinary actions against attorneys -- and at precisely what online information is available to the public in Indiana.

Death certificates. Another category in which Indiana, and in fact all but five states West Virginia, Ohio, Utah, North Dakota, and Texas), fared poorly in-so-far as providing free, online information to the public is concerned, was death certificates.

According to the Survey:

The Sunshine Week 2009 Survey of State Government Information online found that while more and more government records are being posted online, some of the most important information is being left offline. And in some cases governments are charging taxpayers to access records that they already paid for, such as death certificates. * * *

Death certificates are apparently a revenue source for many states, as they charge relatives and "legitimately" interested parties for copies of the records, or farm out the work to a third-party service such as VitalChek. Some states provide historical access online to older death certificates, mostly prior to 1960, although there generally is a fee for hard copies.

Here is the Indiana State Department of Health page for obtaining birth and death certificates. The page makes it clear you may not obtain a death certificate online. You must apply in person or by mail. The cost for the first certificate is $8.00 and $4.00 for each additional copy. You must fill out this form. You must provide identification. You may not obtain a certificate unless you "are considered to have a direct interest and are eligible to receive a copy of a death certificate." That means you must be a parent, spouse, adult child, grandparent, sibling, aunt, uncle, grandchild, niece, nephew,or cousin. According to the form, "Distant relatives will only be issued copies of the death certificate with the approval of the State Registrar unless the record is 75 years old." In addition, the State Registrar must be satisfied that "the information is necessary for the determination of personal or property rights or for compliance with state or federal law." Here is IC 16-37-1-8, which sets out the requirements. (It is not clear to me where the 75 year limit comes from.)*

So the answer is clearly no, the State of Indiana does not provide death certificates online; in fact, death certificates, no matter how old, appear to be difficult to obtain in Indiana.

As pointed out in the survey for Indiana and most other states, a link in the right margin of the ISDH page leads to VitalChek, A LexisNexis Company, where you may order certified copies "for your immediate family." There is a fee, and again, no records are available online from this private company that somehow has access to most states' death certificates.

The Sunshine Week Survey reported that five states do provide death certificates online. So I took a look at them. My conclusion - the Survey is wrong.

Here is Texas. Texas scored overall best in all categories in the Survey. But Texas death certificates are not online. You may order online.

Texas law appears more liberal than Indiana's. In Texas, only death certificates for deaths within the past 25 years are considered protected records. You must provide identification.

For deaths that occurred 25 years ago to the present, only the immediate family members to the name on the death certificate are eligible to request a copy. If you are not an immediate family member, you must provide legal documentation, such as an insurance policy listing you as a beneficiary, that documents a direct and tangible interest in the record.

So what about the other four states that the Survey lists as making death certificates available online?

Utah - The Utah state site reports:

The Inspection of Vital Records Act (HB 84), which passed in May 1998, made historic death records available to the public fifty years after the date of death. Previously, only authorized persons had access to these records. The Office of Vital Records and Statistics began transferring custody of historic death certificates (1904-1947) to the Utah State Archives in July 1998. Each year in January a new lot of death certificates is made available for public access. Birth records remain restricted to authorized persons until one hundred years after the date of birth.
The Utah Death Certificate Index for 1904-1956 is pretty cool, you actually can view death certificates from that period online.

Utah death certificates less than 50 years old are classified private. To access these records, users must contact the Office of Vital Records and Statistics. Ordering is similar to the Indiana process.

Ohio - The Ohio death certificates are not online either. They cost $16.50. Death certificates from 1954 to the present may be ordered, if you can provide the name, and date and place of death. Some earler records may be purchased online through the Ohio Historial Society, a state agency.

West Virginia - May be ordered by mail from the website. "Certificates will only be issued to the next of kin or to persons with a legal right to the certificate." The fee is $12.00.

North Dakota - Again, ordering by mail seems to be the preferred method. Here is the information required for ordering a death certificate in North Dakota. Note that: "A certified informational copy of a death record may be issued to the general public, but the copy may not contain the cause of death or the social security number." The death record, described in detail:

An Informational Copy of a Death Record. Other individuals, such as genealogists, sometimes need a copy of a death record. These individuals will receive certified informational copies. These types of copies would be similar to a full death record and could be issued to anyone for any reason; however, these copies would not include the cause of death or social security numbers. This would allow anyone to obtain the information about a death, but would not allow them to use the copy for any official business.
North Dakota does have a very useful Public Death Index. It goes back to 1881. A search (I used "Smith" for the last 3 years) gives you results including name, date of death, county, genderm age, state and county of residence. But to obtain a certifed copy of the death certificate, you will need to provide proof of identity in the form of "a legible photocopy of a current driver's license or photo ID."
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* Re the 75-year Indiana limit, a reader who is a state government attorney has sent this: "Marcia. The 75-year period (re: Death Certificates) is probably from the Access to Public Records Act, IC 5-14-3-4(d), which reads:
(d) Notwithstanding any other law, a public record that is classified as confidential, other than a record concerning an adoption, shall be made available for inspection and copying seventy-five (75) years after the creation of that record.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on March 18, 2009 09:14 AM
Posted to General Law Related | Indiana Law